It’s Sloppy, But Ventura Pulls Upset

VENTURA —  The Ventura High boys’ basketball team isn’t doing too badly for a team that is still struggling to find its rhythm on offense and defense.

The Cougars upset visiting Oxnard, 58-55, in a nonleague game on Wednesday night for their fourth consecutive victory, despite making one of 10 shots in the fourth quarter and committing five turnovers.

Ventura, which has six players who joined the team late after playing either football or water polo, led, 48-35, late in the third quarter. But the Cougars needed a basket by Mike Derse and some clutch free throws by Scott Ellis and Tyler Ebell in the final minute and a half to repel an Oxnard rally.

“We’re getting more guys to score, which is nice,” said Ellis, a quarterback and defensive back on Ventura’s 10-2 football team. “But we’re not there yet. Defensively, we’ve got a ways to go.”

Ventura (7-4) led, 48-37, at the end of the third quarter, but Oxnard went on a 12-2 run to narrow its deficit to 50-49 with 2:01 left in the game.

Ricky Hernandez scored six of his 14 points during that stretch for the Yellowjackets (9-2), and Jonathan Davis had four of his 10 points. But that was as close as Oxnard got.

Derse, a member of the water polo team that advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Section Division IV playoffs, made a 13-foot jump shot in the lane to give Ventura a 52-49 lead, and Ellis made two free throws with 35 seconds left for a 54-49 advantage.

Davis hit a three-point shot to cut Oxnard’s deficit to 54-52 with 14 seconds remaining, but Ebell sank two free throws with 12 seconds left to give the Cougars a four-point lead.

Ebell made two more free throws with five seconds left after stealing the ball from Davis.

Hernandez hit an uncontested three-point shot as time expired to account for the final score.

“It’s a great win,” Coach Dan Larson of Ventura said. “We’re really happy to beat a quality team like Oxnard.”

Oxnard, the No. 2-ranked team in the region by The Times, was playing without starting guard Matthew Merricks, who was ejected from last week’s game against Santa Clara, but Coach Henry Lobo refused to use that as an excuse.

“We didn’t do a lot of the little things in the first half that we need to do to get our offense going,” he said. “We hit a few threes to take a [12-4] lead and we think we can launch bombs all night.”

Nicholas Curtis, Oxnard’s talented 6-foot-6 junior center, got into early foul trouble and was held to 10 points. He scored eight points in the third quarter, but was scoreless in the fourth.

Antwaine Richards, another member of the football team, scored 15 points, including seven in the third quarter, when they outscored Oxnard, 24-16.

Ebell scored 12 points and teammate Bryan Easterly had 10.

Oxnard was 21 of 54 from the field, and Ventura was 20 of 62, despite making 10 of 18 shots in the third quarter.

Ventura made 17 of 21 free throws.